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Rules of Engagement (episode)
The Klingons try to extradite Worf after he accidentally destroys a transport full of Klingon civilians. Summary Teaser Worf is in command of the Defiant as it is under fire. He wanders the halls and bridge, filled with dead Starfleet officers, and sees a squad of Klingon warriors raising their bat'leths in triumph. Worf attacks one of the Klingons and kills him, and as he falls, Worf notices he is merely a child. Worf looks around and notices the ship is littered with many dead Klingon children. Worf wakes up with a scream to find that his vision was a dream, and he is in a holding cell awaiting a hearing. Act One Admiral T'Lara convenes the hearing aboard Deep Space 9. Ch'Pok, the prosecutor and representative of the Klingon Empire, charges Worf with destroying a civilian transport ship and killing all 441 Klingons aboard. He requests that Worf be extradited to the Empire. Captain Sisko, Worf's defense advocate, explains that the Defiant was under attack by Klingon warships, when the transport suddenly decloaked in the midst of the battle, and that its destruction was an unavoidable accident. As T'Lara adjourns, Worf is bailed from his holding cell - in exchange, he will not be allowed to wear his baldric sash until the trial is over. Worf reluctantly accepts. Sisko meets with Odo in an attempt to find more exonerating evidence. Sisko's hunch is that the transport captain decloaked to attack the Defiant, so Odo's task is to find out everything he can about the crew of the transport. Odo leaves, and Ch'Pok approaches Sisko. Ch'Pok tells him that, if Worf is convicted of this massacre, the Klingon Empire will have a pretext to escalate its offensives. The hearing reconvenes. Ch'Pok accepts Worf's account of the situation, noting that, to Klingons, what matters is Worf's motivation, and whether duty or bloodlust informed his decision. T'Lara allows the hearing to move towards understanding Worf's motives, and Ch'Pok calls his first witness, Jadzia Dax, to the stand. Dax serves as a cultural expert on the Klingons, largely due to the experiences of Curzon Dax, and Ch'Pok tries to get her to define Klingons as a predatory, violent people. She defends Worf, noting that he is excellent at restraining his passions in the name of duty. Ch'Pok then enters into evidence a holosuite program, "The Battle of Tong Vey." The file was taken from Worf's database without a warrant, but Worf allows it to be admitted out of his sense of honor. Dax summarizes the battle - in which Sompek conquered the city of Tong Vey with ten thousand warriors, then ordered the city burned and its people - men, women, and children - killed. Ch'Pok notes that Worf plays the role of Sompek in the holographic reenactment of it, and that he ran the holoprogram the day before the convoy mission, ending it with the order. Act Two Ch'Pok examines Sisko, asking him why he chose Worf for the mission. The Cardassian colony on Pentath III was experiencing an outbreak of Rudellian plague, and Starfleet was sending medical aid. However, Pentath III bordered Klingon space, so the Defiant was sent to escort the medical convoy. Sisko explains that he wanted Worf to have more command experience, and, as a Klingon, he would be well-suited for an escort mission that might involve an altercation with Klingons. Next, Quark testifies about a brief conversation he had with Worf prior to the mission, in which Worf mentioned he "hoped" the Klingons went after the convoy. Worf is embarassed - clearly, Quark told the truth. Act Three Odo reports to Sisko that the transport captain was not at all the kind of person who would attack the Defiant. Sisko tells Odo to look into the passengers of the ship. Back at the hearing, Sisko questions Kira Nerys. Kira explains the decloaking, and asserts that Worf was correct in giving the order to fire. Ch'Pok asks Kira nothing about the mission, but merely establishes that during the Occupation of Bajor, Kira killed dozens of Cardassian civilians as a member of Shakaar Edon's terrorist cell. Captain Sisko calls Chief O'Brien. O'Brien explains the battle - in which a Klingon Bird-of-Prey and a battle cruiser would alternate attacking the Defiant and the convoy. The Klingon ships would fire, then cloak, then decloak and fire again. The Defiant was pursuing the Bird of Prey when it cloaked. They projected its course and followed it when O'Brien picked up a tachyon surge and Worf ordered torpedoes fired at it. As the ship exploded, they realized it was simply a transport. O'Brien reaffirms that he stands by Worf's decision and that Worf is an honorable man. Ch'Pok cross-examines O'Brien. He points out that O'Brien has served during 235 combat encounters and has been decorated by Starfleet fifteen times, and asks that he be declared an expert on starship combat. Ch'Pok asks O'Brien if he had made the same decision had he been in command. O'Brien admits that he would not have, but that this is weeks later, not the heat of the moment. In the Replimat, Sisko is drinking coffee when Ch'Pok takes a seat next to him. He offers to defend Worf himself if Sisko concedes now and allows him to be extradited. Sisko counters that Ch'Pok is still only after grounds to invade the Pentath system. Worf will testify next, and Ch'Pok tells Sisko that he should be worried. Act Four Odo informs Sisko that none of the passengers had any connection to Worf or Starfleet or any perceivable motive whatsoever, but that he will keep looking. In the hearing, Worf is testifying, explaining the mission. He says he was excited by the opportunity to do battle, but that O'Brien was wrong in his choice. He tells Sisko that he knew there was a chance that he would run into a civilian ship, but it was a very remote chance, and that he was more concerned with the welfare of the convoy and his ship than such a slim possibility. Ch'Pok cross-examines Worf. He begins by trying to establish that Worf is angry at the Empire because of his discommendation. Worf says he is hated by his people because of this, but Ch'Pok asserts that they hate him on a more basic level, that he is more human than Klingon. Ch'Pok establishes that Klingons are now his enemies, but Worf says he is not happy with killing civilians because there is no honor in it. Ch'Pok counters that a true Klingon relishes killing all of his enemies, armed or not, and would be happy for the dead children now in Sto-vo-kor, not grieved. Ch'Pok says Worf lives with humans out of fear for Klingons, to which Worf replies with a martial challenge. T'Lara threatens to hold both parties in contempt of court. Ch'Pok continues, arguing that Worf was eager for the Klingons to attack because he wanted to prove himself to other Klingons, and that one day Alexander will grow up to find out his father is a coward who killed innocent people to prove his own courage. At this, Worf gets up and attacks Ch'Pok with a series of blows. Sisko gets up to restrain him, as Ch'Pok closes his examination with the proof that Worf will attack an unarmed man if he is angry or has something to prove. Act Five Sisko sits in his office, as Odo brings in a PADD. The hearing reconvenes and Sisko enters this new evidence, and asks Ch'Pok to testify as an expert on the Klingon Empire. Sisko hands Ch'Pok the padd and asks him to identify the list of names. He answers that they are the victims of Worf's alleged attack. Sisko then explains that this list is actually of the victims of another crash, three months before. Sisko asks Ch'Pok whether it would be possible that the transport was empty and was giving off false sensor images to justify an armed escalation, and Ch'Pok admits that it is. The trial is over. Worf is in his quarters on the Defiant, lost in thought. Sisko comes in, and Worf admits that he did have something to prove when he took command, and that he is prone to want vengeance. Sisko lectures him on taking a command with such a predicament, and reaffirms that a Starfleet officer should never even take a chance of endangering civilians. Nonetheless, Sisko says, Worf will make a great captain one day. Sisko invites Worf to a party at Quark's, and Worf does not want to go, but Sisko reminds him that sometimes a command officer must make sacrifices to keep the troops happy. The two leave to Quark's. Memorable Quotes "It's an interesting system of justice you have Captain. It does have its flaws however. It emphasizes procedure over substance... form over fact." "I'm sorry if you feel it puts you at a disadvantage." "On the contrary, I look forward to fighting on your terms." "This is not a fight. It's the search for the truth." "The truth must be won. I'll see you on the battlefield." : - Ch'Pok and Sisko "I say this: You live with humans because you're afraid to live with Klingons." "I fear nothing. And if you would like to pick up a ''bat'leth and face me with a weapon instead of words, I will prove it to you." : - '''Ch'Pok' and Worf. "Life is a great deal more complicated in this red uniform." "Wait 'til you get four pips on that collar. You'll wish you had gone into botany." : - Worf and Sisko Background Information * The writers loosely based the events of this episode on the Iran Air Flight 655 / Vincennes incident of 1988. The [[Wikipedia:USS Vincennes (CG-49)|USS Vincennes]] shot down a passenger aircraft. * The hearing takes place on stardate 49665.3 while the incident occurred on stardate 49648.0. * Goof: Due to a costuming error, Sisko is missing his fourth rank pip in some of the scenes during the hearing. *The script for this episode references a region on Bajor called the "Golar Province", where the Shakaar Resistance Cell carried out an attack against the Province's Administration Building, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 20 to 25 innocent people. This information, however, did not make it on screen. Links and References Guest Stars *Ron Canada as Ch'Pok *Deborah Strang as T'Lara Co-Stars *Christopher Michael as Helm Officer *Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn (uncredited) References Galorda Prime; Golar Province; Klingon-Cardassian War; Pentath III; Pentath system; Rudellian plague; Sompek; Tong Vey Category:DS9 episodes de:Das Gefecht es:Rules of Engagement nl:Rules of Engagement